What the Catholic Church is Not

When a person is contemplating whether to become or remain Catholic, he may struggle to understand or to agree with certain theological or moral doctrines. He may be concerned about aspects of the Church’s liturgy or popular piety, or perhaps the clergy sex abuse scandals represent enormous roadblocks. Sometimes there are more personal and less rational hang-ups like the prospect of being anonymous in an enormous, impersonal parish. Or maybe it’s fear of going to confession.

 On my own faith journey, I have come to believe that every one of these matters related to whether one should join, remain in, or return to the Catholic Church ultimately comes down to one question: What is the Catholic Church?

 This question is at the heart of the theological discipline called ecclesiology—a particularly tricky area in a world where we have less faith in organizations than we used to. Moreover, “inclusion” has become such a prized idea in our society that it would seem unjust if not simply absurd to many people to recognize any barriers to entry, let alone any standards required to maintain one’s place within it. And sadly, the Catholic Church has leaned the way of most religious groups in recent decades, sometimes downplaying its members’ inescapable obligations. To outsiders, but increasingly to insiders. too, the Catholic Church has become just one particularly large religious option to choose—or, more likely, not choose.

And yet, the Catholic Church’s official claims about itself reject the notion that the Church is just one option among many for the private expression of faith. More than that, the Church does not define itself as an institution at all. It is not a denomination, or a club, or an ideology. Nor is the Catholic Church aspiring to become the thing it is supposed to be in the future.

But people often presume some or all of these things about the Catholic Church.

And what else?

The Catholic Church is not merely an escape for people exhausted by the excesses of secular society. Nor, on the other hand, is it a prison for self-loathers who are afraid of freedom. Nor again is the Church a dictatorship imposed upon people who would prefer to be free but are held down by the pope’s oppressive red slipper. Finally, being Catholic is more than a feeling, and more than an individual preference for self-actualization.

My point is, the Catholic Church is not a lot of things.

In my journey into the Catholic Church, I have found it helpful to address these and other negatives as a way of articulating what the Catholic Church actually is. In an age where the Church is increasingly caricatured and regarded in a negative light (if it is regarded at all), a good way to talk about why someone would want to join it or stay in it may be to confront some of these misperceptions.

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